Cut the government fat

Published: Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013 5:30 a.m. CST

To the Editor:

I’d like to compliment the editorial board for its well-thought-out editorial (“Government needs a trim,” Oct. 1).

This “Our View” should be required reading for every tax-paying Illinois resident, and it should be printed again. The current bloated government situation in Illinois is simply ridiculous. It just doesn’t compute.

As pointed out, other states get by with many fewer government agencies and are much more efficiently run, while producing better results for the taxpayer. The current situation in Illinois is not only an embarrassment, it’s intolerable.

The simple fact is that the private sector cannot hope to pay for the benefit and retirement packages the public sector currently receives.

How many folks in the private sector retire in their 50s with six-figure annual compensation plus paid health care? It’s virtually unheard of.

While this example is not characteristic of all public-sector benefits packages, the plain fact is that many in the private sector are working well into their 60s, with no guaranteed retirement benefits other than Social Security.

As taxpayers, we are guilty of not paying attention to what the public sector is granting itself with regard to these benefits, yet we are the ones expected to pay for them.

In Illinois, we need reduced government, beginning with the elimination of townships, and reduced benefit packages that somehow relate to what is comparable in the private sector.

With taxpayers leaving Illinois at an alarming rate because of our ridiculously high taxes, we must demand reform now from our elected officials.